my 2 cents

# 500

 

This is my 500th post at my 2 cents.  Who would've thought?

I remember when I began to blog, nearly five years ago.  My friend CK (Christina Kerley), who got me started, had been an active blogger for well over a year, even though I had told her at first that she was wasting her time.  I couldn't have been more wrong.

So here I am... 500 posts and nearly 2,000 comments later.  Comments have come from people I know, from many I don't know and from some who I've come to know online and in person.  Comments have been from people throughout the U.S. and Canada, and from Europe, Australia, Asia, India, the Middle East and South America.  None yet from Africa or Antarctica, but you never know.

What I had called a waste of time when CK began has turned out to be a rewarding activity, in so many ways.  Blogging has encouraged me to look at things a bit more closely.  It's brought me several new friends who I sometimes engage with offline or even in person.  It's brought me some business, although that was not the reason I began to blog.

About a year after I began my blog, I was fortunate to participate in the Blogger Social, which was held here in New York.  More than a hundred people I had been communicating with online gathered to meet face-to-face and get to know each other.  I met friends from as far away as Australia and Oman and as close as nearby towns in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.  It truly was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

A series of comments by Australian Gavin Heaton on a post by Des Moines' Drew McLellan led to a collaboration by 100 bloggers worldwide, and a book called Age of Conversation. I am proud to have been a part of that and the two succeeding volumes.  In addition to bringing together more than 200 of us who contributed chapters to the books, it also raised upwards of $15,000 for some worthwhile international charities.

Some of the bloggers who were active when I began have since stopped or migrated to other social media platforms.  I'm on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and a few others, but I still enjoy writing my blog most.  I'm not confined to 140 characters, first of all, and, OMG, I don't have to write in shorthand.

So I hope you'll stay with me here and maybe, with some luck, we can celebrate 1,000 posts together.

Thanks for all the comments and encouragement and, most of all, thanks for reading and letting me pass along my 2 cents.

David

 

 

 

 

 

Climbing Out -- Bathroom Blogfest 2011

 

I’m pleased to be participating in the sixth Bathroom Blogfest. 

The annual event, which now includes 
more than 30 bloggers who come from 
a variety of disciplines ranging from 
design to home furnishing to marketing 
and PR (that’s me), has looked at 
bathrooms from a number of perspectives.

This year’s theme is Climbing Out, 
which I take to mean looking beyond 
the traditional role of public bathrooms 
and how they can and do impact an 
organization’s image and its customer 
relations efforts.

Most decent restaurants seem to pay attention to their bathrooms.  
I’ve been to some places where the bathroom is more spectacular 
or homey than the décor of the eatery itself.  And I’ve also been 
turned off by restaurant bathrooms that are dark, dingy or just plain 
dirty and unkempt.  That’s not exactly someplace that will keep you 
in the mood for a great meal.

Retail stores seem to have a wide range of bathroom quality, but 
most seem to be clean and institutional.  The same can be said for 
bathrooms at major movie theater chains.  Nothing great, but clean 
and generic.   

Supermarkets seem to be another story.  Maybe the markets figure 
no one even needs to go while grocery shopping, but hey, nature 
calls anytime, anywhere.  Supermarkets rarely have a public 
bathroom, but instead send customers to the employee bathrooms.  
In many cases, those bathrooms are in the bowels of the store.  It’s 
not at all appetizing to see the backrooms of a supermarket, which 
are surprisingly unclean, in appearance at least.  

It would seem that any store, restaurant or other place that has 
customers or clients coming to visit would put some effort into 
having bathrooms that are, at the very least, clean.  And going the 
extra mile to have bathrooms that sparkle and dazzle reflect caring 
and concern for customers.
 

Climbing out of bare-bones bathrooms 
makes good sense for any business that 
has customers visiting.  It’s good customer 
relations, which translates to good business.

...

Here's info on all 33 Bathroom Bloggers this week.  
Be sure to check out their posts during the coming week by 
clicking here. 

 

 

TMI: How much is too much info for bloggers?

There's an online newsletter called HARO (Help A Reporter Out) that links reporters and public relations sources.  Three times a day, HARO puts out a list of queries from reporters working on stories, asking for information, background, quotes and other resources from PR people who get the newsletter.

A few weeks ago one of the headlines for a query struck me as odd.  It read:

   Blogging while black.

What could be or should be different about blogging for a person of color as opposed to someone who is white or latino, Roman Catholic or gay.  When I took a closer look at the details of the query, the headline came into focus for me.

Here's some of what the query asked...

What are the challenges and disadvantages faced by bloggers of African heritage?  Do you consciously avoid imagery that will define or brand you as black?  Have you ever been asked or challenged on the tone or look of your site based on race?

It posed some interesting questions I had never considered.

My blog began just for fun, but I quickly realized its potential impact and it has become an extension of my public relations agency and my brand.  From the start, I decided to keep personal info and activities to a minimum on the blog and to steer clear of politics -- a rule I've broken a few times.  But the bulk of the content is reporting, analysis and commentary about media, marketing and public relations -- the business of Reich Communications.

I've never tried to hide who I am, although I don't flaunt it.  My photo is there with my bio, so anyone who looks will see I'm a white guy.  The grey hair clearly shows I'm from the boomer generation.  I've occasionally made reference to Jewish topics such as Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish New Year.  And I think my bio mentions I'm president of the Jewish Community Council in my hometown.  My contact information is clearly posted, so anyone can quickly see I'm a New Yorker.

I don't post my political preferences or party affiliation.  But regular readers might have figured out I'm not a fan of Sarah Palin.  They might also know I love jazz and New York City.

But the HARO query made me wonder if some seemingly innocuous information like the color of a blogger's skin might hamper him or her in business.  I'm not such a pollyana as to think that race,  religion, country of origin or political or sexual preferences might never impact someone's decision on whether or not to hire or work with a person.  I know that even in these times, prejudice still is alive in some hearts.

I realize that someone in my field who is black may have faced discrimination in business more than I have.  So I can understand their reluctance, perhaps, to include their photo on their professional blog.  Although at some point, photo posted or not, a potential client may meet you and see that you're black.  And if that's a problem for someone, wrong as it is, that old prejudice will still be acted upon.

My feeling is if someone won't work with me because of my color or my religion, there's a pretty good chance I wouldn't want to be working with them either.  But that's just me.

I wonder how others feel about including personal information on a business or professional blog.  Do you or might you keep some information off your blog?

 

Blogs still have a place in marketing arsenal

Despite Pew Research study, blogs are a viable marketing tool  

 

The New York Times on Sunday reported on a Pew Research study that finds blogging has declined by half among teens.  But the Times' headline, "Blogs Wane as the Young Drift to Sites Like Twitter," can be misinterpreted.  I don't think blogging is dying... not at all. 

 

Before Twitter and Facebook gained popularity, young people saw blogging as a way to express themselves and share diary-like thoughts with the world.  Soon after, others -- including marketers -- began blogging as a way to share information with customers and prospects and as a way to (pardon the use of jargon) "engage" with customers.  Blogging also became, for many professionals like me, a way to build an online presence and demonstrate knowledge and expertise in a given area.

Many of those who used blogs as an open-book diary or personal journal have migrated to Twitter and Facebook, where no heavy thinking or the heavy lifting of extensive writing is necessary. In fact, Twitter, with its 140-character limit, seems perfectly suited for so much of the inane chatter that dominates social media.  Better to let it clog up Twitter and Facebook than to have a few more pointless ramblings in the blogosphere.

I do sometimes tweet to share a thought or refer people to something interesting online, but mostly I use Twitter and Facebook as a platform to pomt people to my blog.  And marketers can use 140 characters on Twitter to get readers to visit a company blog, where a well-written and thoughtful dialogue can be conducted.

The Pew report notes that as teens are losing interest in blogging, the longer form of expression is picking up with middle age and older adults.  Among 34 - 45-year olds online, the percentage who blog has risien six percentage points in the past two years, to 16 percent.  Among 46 - 55 year olds, blogging has increased by five percentrage poinmts, to 11 percent.

Maybe many of us in middle age and beyond feel no need to tell the world every time we go to the supermarket, nor do we need to tell readers online if we can't decide between hazelnut or vanilla latte when we go to Starbucks.

There's so much more to life, and blogs can let us talk about it in a meaningful and interesting way.  And for marketers who want to reach out with meaty informartion and ideas, blogs are still a good venue.

So I say... blogs are very much alive.

 

Update Feb. 23:  Cathy Taylor, writing in MediaPost, agrees.  

Job-hunting for soon-to-be graduates -- Tips to succeed

I am glad I'm not about to graduate college next spring.  It's really tough going out there, and jobs won't be easy to find.

Less than half of employers who hired new graduates last year are planning to hire again this spring.  That's according to a story in today's Wall Street Journal, reporting on a survey of 4,600 companies by the Collegiate Employment Research Institute at Michigan State University.

Of those who didn't hire last year, 76 percent said they definitely won't or very likely won't hire new graduates next spring. 

Despite the gloomy forecast, there are always companies hiring. Larger companies, the survey shows, are more likely to hire than mid-size businesses. The challenge for college seniors will be to find ways to stand out from the crowd.

For marketing and communications majors, employers look at more than grades.  Yes, the GPA does count, but the typical job candidate will be up against many others whose grades are just as good.  One way to stand out, though, is through leadership positions in extracurricular activities. 

It might be too late now for a senior to be able to add leadership positions to his or her resume and he hasn't been active outside of class.  But underclassmen, take notice and plan ahead.

For seniors, the internet can help make up for extracurricular shortfalls, or it can enhance an already strong all-around resume.  If you don't now blog, consider starting one on a subject that relates to the career you're interested in.  Read the ad and marketing trade publications and then offer your own views.  I've seen some pretty good blogs done by students in PR and marketing at schools in Ohio, Georgia and elsewhere, where the profs encourage their students to write online.

A well-written, thoughtful blog can help show a potential empoloyer that you're smart, interested in your chosen field and can articulate your position on relevant issues. It could give you a bit of an edge over your classmates who are after the same jobs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bathroom Blogfest: Some Pay for Captive Audience

            "Kilroy was here"

    "For a good time, call Jane"

"Beatles 4 ever"

            "School sucks"

 

These are probably typical of the messages you've seen scrawled on bathroom walls and stalls, along with nasty rhymes, gross drawings and weird invitations.  But as perverted or disgusting as these messages may have been, their authors knew they had a captive audience for anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes or more.

Bathrooms in public places have long been used as the venue for a strange sport of messaging that ranges from an impromptu community bulletion board to an unregulated porn marketplace rivaling Craigslist.  The cost to those advertisers?  Free, other than the cost of some ink from a marker or pen.

In some places, the bathrooms have long carried targeted advertising to a targeted audience, such as the unisex bathrooms in music venues like famed The Bitter End in Greenwich Village or The Living Room on the Lower East Side.  On those walls, the scrawled messaged are covered over by years of stickers and posters promoting bands that have played there.

In most public bathrooms, the walls have traditionally been a wild west of advertising.  But that's been changing over the 15 years, as out-of-home advertising hits the john.

Advertisers have an array of choices to reach people as they stand or sit for a moment while they take care of business.  Most major markets in the U.S. and abroad have companies that place advertising posters or cards in bathrooms -- over urinals or inside bathroom stall doors.  Some of these businesses exhibit a sense of humor in the names they've chosen -- Johnny Advertising in Grand Rapids, Phoenix and St. Louis, Standing Room Only Indoor Media in Nashville, Whizz Advertsing, Everywhereyougo in Michigan and Ohio, or, in Washington DC, Crapitol City Advertising.

The media kits that these companies use to sell ads tell an interesting story of how we use public restrooms.  One media sales kit talks about the "long dwell times" that average 55 seconds for men and 105 seconds for women, where they are "captive" to the ad messages that, research shows, get very high recall -- much higher than ads in magazines, newspapers or TV.  They have research to support these claims.

The sales kit for All Over Media in Florida lists these reasons bathroom advertising works to "reach consumers on the go."

Viewers like them.

You can saturate the market or hand pick your locations.

Your message will not be clicked past, tuned out or turned off.

People wait to see your ads and are in front of them for up to 3 minutes.

Target by location, lifestyle, gender, or zip code.

It’s cost effective. Other mediums can’t compare to our reach or retention for the same price.

The Indoor Billboard Advertising Association cites studies that show:

"Consumer attitudes toward restroom advertising were found to be very positive with as much as 98% of those surveyed indicating a favorable reaction." > Arizona State University Study
	Retention of impressions generated by restroom advertising was found to be on average 40% stronger than impressions generated by other media. > Rice University Study
	"When restroom advertising viewers are shopping for a product or service, retention of that particular product or service advertised raises to an 85% rate."

And bathroom advertising goes beyond posters.  WhizBizAds in Mission Viejo, CA installs video displays a above urinals that run a series of 5-second ads.  Another company projects ads onto the mirror from behind.  And ad space can be purchased on johhny cakes, the deodorant bars that sit at the bottom of many urinals.  One company even sells a johnnycake that plays a message or jingle when it gets peed on.

Many of these ad companies actively seek new locations, and they explain how bathrooms can be turned into revenue generators. 

After looking through some of their sales brochures, I'm thinking of putting ads in my downstairs bathroom at home.  If I can get enough traffic coming through, it might cover the cost of our toilet paper.

I'll give it some more thought the next time I'm in there for a couple of minutes.  With no ads up yet, there's not much else to do.

 

This post marks the third year I've participated in Bathroom Blogfest.  Previous posts can be found here, here and here.  To read the contributions of the other 32 blogging participants, click here.   

 

 

 

Blog Tipping

Matt's back

 

I just noticed that Matt Dickman is back with his blog Techno Marketer.  When I first started blogging almost four years ago, Matt was one of the more prolific and thoughtful bloggers in the marketing space.

After he began a new job with PR agency Fleishman-Hillard, he slowed down and let his blog go dormant for about a year and a half.

But now he's back, and he says he'll put his focus on strategy, trends and innovation.

So... welcome back, Matt.  We'll be looking forward to seeing your thoughts online again.

A push for Age of Conversation 3

 

I'm proud to be one of the 170 bloggers who wrote chapters for Age of Conversation 3.  So far, I've contributed to all three of the blogger-collaborative books organized and edited by Drew McLellan in Des Moines and Gavin Heaton down under in Sidney.  

A charity has been selected to be the recipient of the book's proceeds.  The first two books raised more than $25,000 for Variety - The International Childrens Charity.

An AoC3 Bum Rush for Blog Action Day, October 15

As you may know, today is Blog Action Day  – and this year’s focus for Blog Action Day is water. To participate in Blog Action Day, you simply register your blog and then write a post. BUT what can you write about? Here’s where Age of Conversation comes in!

Charity Water is one of the participating partners for Blog Action Day. So what I’d like you to do is to help us with a Bum Rush on the Amazon charts – generate sales for AoC3 and raise money for Charity Water.

Charity Water is a non-profit organization bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. 100% of public donations directly fund water projects.

Amazingly, just $20 can give one person clean water for 20 years. An average water project costs $5,000 and can serve 250 people with clean, safe water – so purchasing a copy of the Age of Conversation 3 really can make a difference to someone’s life!

Here's how you can help, and get a book filled with smart thinking from 170 bloggers worldwide...

Buy the Book and send others to buy the book. If you work in an agency, get your agency to purchase multiple copies and give them out as year end gifts. This is the #1 call to action, because this is where we want to see the most impact. NOTE: Please buy 1 copy at a time because Amazon counts bulk orders once, and please use these affiliate links, which will help us in tracking sales. Remember, all the proceeds from the book sales and referrals will go to charity water.

Click here to get more info and to purchase a copy, in hardvcover, paperback or for Kindle.

By the way, when you get your copy, check out my piece on Page 189, where I explain how in this world of new media, the old pitching rules still apply and work.

 

Content: The Hot "New" Marketing Tool

Marketing messages, until fairly recently, were pretty much limited to straightforward reasons to buy or use a particular product or service, delivered through the media as ads or disguised through p.r. as part of news and feature editorial content.  But marketers had to rely on media venues, which they don’t own or control. 

Public relations and cause-related marketing tried to create or enhance awareness and goodwill by connecting a company or product to an event, activity or charitable cause.  The platforms for those marketing messages were also, for the most part, traditional advertising media and public relations efforts with the media.

But over the past few years, the internet has created a whole new arena for marketers to use to   support their messages and how they reach out to their target publics.

Online publications, blogs and social networking have opened enormous new avenues for information and ideas – what is now being called “content.”  It’s a p.r. person’s dream with literally millions of places for us to gain exposure for and convey information about our clients. 

As print media are, sadly, diminishing in number, online media are exploding.  Not long ago, most clients didn’t care about an online placement.  Now, many view online exposure as more valuable than a story in traditional print media.

Utilizing many of these new media outlets to convey marketing messages is not as simple as writing good ad copy and buying the time or space.  “Content” has to relevant to the consumers’ interests and useful to them.  In most cases, a blatant marketing message won’t do the trick.

A 2008 study showed 79 percent of the Fortune 100 were using social media platforms to reach out to customers.  But have they been effective at it?

If the corporate blog or the Facebook page is little more than a sales brochure, it’s an opportunity missed.  And if a company’s outreach to social media controlled by others, such as blogs, is also simply promotional, it’ll most likely be a wasted effort.

Why?

Because people use social media for content  -- information, opinion, how-to material.  Blogs that are little more than ads generally don’t get read.  The same holds true for other social networking platforms.

So, as Joe Pulizzi, Junta 42 editor and author of the book “Get Content. Get Customers” says, “Marketers need to take off their sales hats and put on publisher hats.” The challenge, as well as the opportunity, is to create usable content – information that helps the reader, whether or not that information is related to selling the company’s products.

That’s a role we in public relations are (or should be) good at.  For us to succeed in getting our information used by the media, we’ve always had to think like an editor or publisher while we simultaneously think like a marketer.  Provide material that is of real use and interest to the audience you’re talking to.

The same applies to the new social media.  Marketers must use those platforms for information that’s of real use to its users.  For those of us in public relations, that shouldn’t be much of a stretch.

Who's blogging?

With Twitter and Facebook getting all the attention these days, are people still blogging? 

A lot of us, according to a study reported in a recent research brief from the Center for Media Research.  

Blogging is still a younger person's phenomenon, with more than 53 percent of bloggers in the 21 - 35 age group.  Teens comprise 20 percent, and the 36 - 50 group makes up just under 20 percent.  My age group, the 51-plus, is only seven percent.

The report notes that many of the 21 - 35 group grew up during the "blogging revolution" that took off around seven years ago. 

Men and women are evenly split as bloggers, with women outnumbering men by about a percent.

California has the biggest number of bloggers in North America, followed by New York, Ontario, Colorado and Texas.  The U.S. has, by far, the biggest percentage of bloggers, at 29 percent.  Next is the U.K. (6.7 percent), Japan (five percent), Brazil (4.7 percent) and Canada (3.9 percent).

The study found similar breakdowns in the Twitter universe, except U.S. tweeters are much more active than tweeters in other nations. 

Here in the U.S., we account for more than half of the tweets worldwide.  I suppose that shouldn't be surprising, in this land of fast food, fast news and now, fast talk.